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New Scientist Live

Briefing: Should miaow-miaow be banned?

By Nic Fleming

The “legal high” mephedrone – also known as M-Cat, plant food, and miaow miaow – is getting a lot of attention because a series of deaths have been linked to the drug. Most recently, two teenaged men in the UK died after taking it on Sunday night, although the results of medical tests to determine the causes of their deaths will not be known for several weeks.

It has become the fourth most popular drug in the UK behind cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine over the past year. The British government’s official drug advisers are expected to recommend that it be banned, but some drugs policy experts say criminalisation could do more harm than good. Now New Scientist cuts through the hype.

What is mephedrone?

The leaves of the khat plant, Catha edulis, are chewed for the stimulant, amphetamine-like properties of its active ingredients cathinone and cathine, mostly in east Africa and in migrant groups elsewhere. Mephedrone – more properly 4-methylmethcathinone – is the best known of a family of synthetic or substituted cathinones. It is commonly sold as a white powder or in capsules and is usually snorted or swallowed.

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Where does it come from?

The vast majority is produced by Chinese chemical companies, which sell it for around £4,000 a kilogram, mostly to European dealers who sell it online for £10 to £15 per gram or less for larger quantities.

What are its effects?

There has been very little peer-reviewed research. Users who have posted their experiences online or taken part in surveys describe the effects as similar to those of taking amphetamine or ecstasy. They include euphoria, increased energy levels, alertness, sociability, jaw grinding, blurred and twitchy vision, pupil dilation, excessive perspiration and increased heart rate and sex drive. Some users have reported re-dosing compulsively. Even less is known about the effects of combining mephedrone with alcohol and/or other drugs.

Can it kill you?

Yesterday, it was confirmed that mephedrone poisoning killed John Sterling Smith, a 46-year-old man who died in the UK last month. His death is considered to be the first in the world that can definitely be blamed on mephedrone&colon; several other suspected cases in the UK and elsewhere have turned out not to have been caused by mephedrone – or are still unconfirmed.

Gabrielle Price, 14, from Worthing in the UK, died in November after taking the drug at a party. Journalists are still saying her death was linked to the drug despite the publication of a medical tests showing she died of a “cardiac arrest following broncho-pneumonia which resulted from streptococcal A infection”. Other reports of fatalities have turned out to be similarly unfounded.

Fiona Measham at Lancaster University, UK, a member of the committee that is advising the British government on whether to ban cathinones, says deaths caused by the drug are “inevitable” if it triggers heart palpitations, as reported, and because of the similarities of side effects to other stimulants that can be fatal.

Where is it used?

Significant use has been reported in Sweden, Finland, Israel, the UK, Ireland and Australia. Discussions about it first appeared on internet forums in 2007, and French police identified it in a pill in May that year. It has been banned in Israel, Sweden, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Germany.

What about in the US?

Hardly any use of mephedrone has been reported in the US, but under the US Controlled Substances Act, its chemical similarity to MDMA mean that it is considered to be a banned substance.

Should it be banned elsewhere?

A tricky one. Young people may be encouraged to take mephedrone because it is legal. On the other hand, making it illegal would hand the trade to organised crime, drive users to crime to pay the higher prices that would result, turn others back to existing illegal drugs and create a market for the next generation of legal highs.